Locked Up Memories
by ShortGirlWithAPen
Summary: When a human that Rico knows too well comes to the Central Park Zoo, Rico will have to face a memory that he has kept locked up. What will Kowalski, Private, and Skipper do to help their broken friend? Just friendship, no slash. Faint reference to 'Rico's Nightmare'


**Disclaimer- I don't own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters!**

* * *

It was an ordinary day in the penguin headquarters. Routine went on as normal after the daily warm-ups in the morning. No one could guess that later that day, an unexpected visitor would come, someone who Rico thought he had no chance of ever seeing again, and was glad about it, as he never wanted to see him again.

Alice looked at the man in her office. "Are you sure you want to test on the penguins? They can be tough to deal with."

"Yes, all four of them. There's something I just need to do." the other zookeeper, named Michael, says.

"Alright, good luck."

* * *

"Really, the Lunacorns again?" Skipper asks Private.

"Yes, Skippa. You know they teach.." Private answers before getting interrupted.

"I know what they teach. Can we just watch something else this one time?"

"Fine."

Kowalski and Skipper look at each other in agreement. They knew there was going to be a scary movie marathon coming on soon and they had agreed to watch it together.

Private goes to Rico, who during this time, was brushing Ms. Perky's hair and singing to her.

Private managed to stay silent, knowing that in this time he spent with Ms. Perky, Rico hated to be interrupted, and often tuned everything out.

Everything went silent as they tried to turn off everything and make everything seem normal when there was a banging noise of someone getting the opening to the headquarters open.

Something bad must be happening if someone was trying to get them out.

But when it was opened, it only showed one man, and it was one man who Rico knew too well.

Michael.

* * *

Soon enough, Skipper, Private, Kowalski, and Rico were trapped in cages while Michael walks back and forth in front of them.

"Now, I have some tests to try on you four. It will last a total of four days. Each of you will get your own day. Starting today. Which one should I do first?" He stops in front of Rico, who growls at Michael, trying to warn him to get away. "I think I should start with you."

Rico's eyes go wide as Michael gets him out of the cage and straps him to a child-sized chair, which was more than enough room for any of the four penguins.

"Now, this might sting a little at first, but it won't last for long."

Michael gives Rico a shot with clear liquid inside of it. There's no telling what it will do; only Michael knows.

Rico closes his eyes, wishing to be anywhere but there. This is exactly what happened, but it was a day and a place that Rico never wanted to visit again.

* * *

_There's a familiar setting in front of Rico's eyes now, but no one else will be able to see it._

_It's the penguin habitat of the zoo that Rico used to be at._

_At first, it seems like there's no humans there, but closer investigation shows that there is one._

_Michael, the evil zookeeper that would torture every animal possible. In Michael's hand, there's a knife. Who knows what he's planning to do?_

_Directly in front of Michael is Rico's family._

'Oh, no.' _thinks Rico. _'I know this day. He's going to kill my family. Except for Puerto, that is.'

_Michael moves forward, moving closer to the family. Rico tries to block him, but he's stuck in place. No way to protect them. Apparently, whatever was in the shot that Michael gave made him stuck in place. No way to keep Michael away from those he loves the most._

_"Can't protect them, can you?" Michael says, laughing evilly. "Don't worry, I'll get to you soon enough. You'll be with them." _

_One by one, Michael kills Rico's family as he's forced to watch._

_Rico doesn't know how long he stays there, staring at the dead bodies of his family after Michael's gone. Time seems to go the fastest it has ever went._

* * *

Rico opens eyes.

Michael lets Rico out of the chair and puts him back in his cage. "That was perfect. But you'll see me again tomorrow."

Once Michael leaves, Private looks at Rico in the cage next to him and realizes that he's crying. Rico might not have been invulnerable, but he was close enough in Private's eyes.

"Rico, what was it?" Skipper asks.

_"It was him.." _Rico answers.

The worry in Skipper's voice starts to show. "Who was him?"

_"Michael. H-he killed them." _Rico releases the broken sounding sobs that has formed inside of him. _"He killed m-my family."_

"Oh, Rico. I'm sorry." Kowalski says gently.

Private didn't know what to say. No one did, really, but this scared Private. In many ways, Rico was the toughest out of their group of penguins. If what Michael did had this type of effect on Rico, then what would it do to the rest of them?

But now, they needed to be there for Rico. Every one of them had their breaking point, and if one of them reached that point, the other three would be there for them.

"Rico." Private says, putting a flipper on Rico's shaking form. "Rico, listen to me." Rico looks up carefully, as if he's scared that someone will hurt him more emotionally than he already has been, if that's even possible. "I care about you. A lot. So don't drive yourself crazy with this."

_"Hurting." _Rico says, his voice still shaking, but not as much as it was.

"I know. Your heart's broken. It hurts. Trust me, I know. My family's dead, too, if that helps you any."

Kowalski and Skipper stare at Private, but Rico only smiles faintly.

_"But you're innocent." _Rico whispers.

"And you're not?"

"Rico, can I ask you something..?" Kowalski asks, coming out of his thoughts.

_"Why not?" _

"Is this the same guy in the dreams?"

Rico nods. _"Found us."_

"That he did, soldier, that he did." Skipper says after a moment. "We need to get out of here."

"Agreed." Kowalski says.

"We know that we can turn cages over; we've done it before. There are ways to get out of these, too. But now, we need to focus on getting to headquarters."

* * *

The hardest part of the escape was getting out of the room. The good thing was that they've done escapes similar to this when they've had to get out of a room while still trapped in cages.

This time though, they decided to get out of the cages before starting anything else, so they spend a few moments picking the locks to each cage.

After that, they hurriedly, but quietly, sneak out the door and start to run toward headquarters.

Within five minutes, they have reached their destination.

Once they're safely inside headquarters, they look at each other. Rico, not wanting to face any possible questioning, goes to his bunk and closes his eyes.

"Guys, I think he might be depressed." Kowalski says.

"I think so, too." Skipper agrees.

"I just hate seeing him hurt so much. We need to help him."

Rico hears everything they're saying, but decides to ignore it.

"Can I ask what's wrong, soldier?" Skipper asks, making his way to Rico.

_"Heart's ripped open." _

"Anything we can do to help you?"

_"Don't know."_

"You pushed those feelings back, didn't you? Are you just now grieving them?"

_"Yes."_

"You can't bury yourself in your mind like this."

_"Let me try. Please."_

"No. You need more help than you think."

_"Going to be fine."_

Within moments, Rico falls asleep.

"Okay, two missions at the moment: stay hidden from Michael and help Rico get better. The first will be much easier."

* * *

"Kowalski, this isn't what you think it is. It's more bipolar depression." Skipper says later that night.

"But, Skippa, Rico's never been depressed." Private says.

"Maybe not since you've been here. The last time it was this bad was when he first got here."

"Rico has wounds on his heart that might not ever heal. It's just how humans and a few animals treated him before he got transferred here." Kowalski says. "What? He's told me a couple of times how things were there."

"So, Michael somehow just forced Rico into depression?" Private asks.

"Not somehow. It was that shot that Michael gave him. It made him see things that he never even wanted to see the first time. It must have." Skipper points out. "But other than that, it seems like it."

* * *

The next day, the penguins try not to let anyone know that they're anywhere close to headquarters.

Rico's strangely quiet as he holds Ms. Perky and stares at her.

"Want to talk, Rico?" Private asks.

_"Didn't want to relive it." _Rico answers.

"That bad?"

_"Forced to watch."_

"I'm here for you, okay?"

Rico nods, knowing that Private actually _does _understand what's going on in his mind, at least a little. Although Alice wasn't exactly abusive to any of the animals in the Central Park Zoo, it often seemed like she didn't care. She more than likely didn't.

A few tears fall from Rico's eyes. Skipper and Kowalski go over to him and try to comfort him.

_"Sorry.__" _

"No, don't be sorry. We're always going to be here for you. I promise." Kowalski says.

Private hugs Rico and whispers, "It's going to be okay."

_"Are you sure?" _Rico whispers back.

"Completely."

* * *

The next two days seem to take forever as they have to remain quiet and watch Rico slowly fall into his mind. Even though the experiment happened a few days ago, Rico can't stop reliving what happened. It seems like it was doing something a lot worse to him than the rest thought it did.

On the day that Michael was supposed to be leaving on, Rico goes to Kowalski and watches him work on a new invention.

_"What is that?" _Rico asks.

"You press this button and a claw goes out and grabs any villain. It could work on humans, too, I think." Kowalski answers.

_"Nice." _

"How are you?"

Rico shrugs. _"A little better. You?"_

"Fine."

_"What if you needed to be saved from yourself?"_

"Well I would start talking to someone I trust. If they knew what was going on, then it would be better. But talking to someone would be very important."

* * *

A month later, Rico seems to be getting better, the metaphorical wounds on his heart healing into scars that would be there forever. No matter what happened, he could never forget Michael's face, the evil smile on his face when he was able to run tests on animals or abuse them or do whatever he could get away with doing to them.

Rico did start talking out what he was thinking with Private, who understood everything. Occasionally, though, he would talk to Skipper, knowing that leaders usually knew exactly what to say to the people in their groups, and that's exactly what Skipper did.

Thinking back, the penguins were surprised that Michael hadn't come by the headquarters at all. It might have been that he had been found out and permanently banned from working and visiting zoos altogether, but who knows, the good thing was that he might not be coming back for good.

* * *

**A/N: This was longer than I planned, but I hope you liked it. Reviews are welcome.**


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